Re: A custom type/class system with lua/luajit

[C Bielert <cib123@...>]

I believe I should clear up a bit where I'm actually going with this. I'm not doing this for a company or any other kind of organization that would put pressure on me, thus experimentation is in order and I won't come back here whining because things didn't work out after all. In fact, it's just the other way around: I am severely stuck in the current design of my project, because there seems to simply be no scripting language that meets my demands. As such, experimenting with what's out there, and seeing if I can extend an existing language to doing what I need, is actually one of the best options available to me.

There are two reasons I'm experimenting with luajit right now. Firstly, luajit can be used to write fast code. In other words, if a user of my framework wants to improve the performance of certain areas of his code, he can do it with the same language, rather than having to dig into the C++ source, getting the necessary compiler, libraries etc. 

Secondly, lua provides just the very bare functionality. You are actually expected to extend it yourself, so even if lua is not intended as a typed language, it will still be easier to do than with say, python.

It is also to note that I don't intend to create a strictly typed framework. I don't want to place restrictions on the user, I simply want to provide her with tools that will make her life a lot easier. In my experience, a class system, featuring inheritance and mixins, will make it easier to write, read and structure your game. Similarly, cheap(in terms of devtime) typechecks on function entry will catch many mistakes at the place they are introduced, rather than at the place they first cause flawed behavior.

I suspect that you and I have a very different approach to writing code, for any purpose. That's fine, after all I'm a great fan of your work, and you manage to pull it off by writing code that is beyond the average human. However, for this project I am much more interested in creating a framework that focuses on ease of use, intuitivity, readability and safety, whereas efficiency should be something that is only applied where necessary(and it will be necessary). Lua is not the perfect language for that. For the time being, it still seems like my best bet though. :)